Neighborhoods conference focuses on crime, safety

Updated 11:16 pm, Saturday, June 8, 2013

For the first time in its 24-year history, the annual conference of the Neighborhood Resource Center on Saturday focused entirely on the issue of crime and safety.

Police Chief William McManus urged attendees to develop a relationship with their San Antonio Fear Free Environment, or SAFFE, officer.

In his opening remarks at Laurel Heights United Methodist Church, he told audience members that the best way to deal with a wide range of nonemergency situations or “chronic issues” is to contact the SAFFE officer assigned to their neighborhood.

“If you don't have a relationship with your SAFFE officer, you need to do that, you need to know what the officer's name is, you need to have their cellphone number,” McManus said.

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Attendees also heard about Texas's self-defense laws from Justice of the Peace Jeff Wentworth, who as a state senator authored what is often called the “castle doctrine” law, which gives Texans the right to use deadly force to defend themselves in their home, vehicle and workplace.

The castle doctrine doesn't apply to trespassers, he said, and it doesn't allow deadly force to protect buildings that aren't someone's “habitation.”

“This means structures that are detached from where you sleep at night are not considered to be habitation,” Wentworth said.

Texas's so-called “stand your ground” law would be better characterized as the “no duty to retreat” law, he said. But he warned that it doesn't apply in a number of situations, including when an attack is provoked.

He also warned that the laws are legal defenses from civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution but won't necessarily prevent arrest or lawsuits.